The present invention relates to a method for inspecting the surfaces of a three-dimensional body, with which at least one camera and at least one illuminating device are moved relative to the surface of the object, pictures are taken of the areas to be inspected on the surface during the movement of the camera relative to the surface, and the pictures are transmitted to a computer and evaluated therein. The invention also relates to a corresponding system for inspecting surfaces.
The three-dimensional object can be a body or a body part, in particular. In this case, the surface to be inspected is often a painted surface or a bare sheet-metal surface, the quality of which is to be inspected. The inspection is carried out to identify defects or flaws, such as topological defects, on the surface using optical scanning. The camera used for this purpose can be any optical picture-taking device that meets the particular requirements and is optimally adapted to the surface to be investigated.
A similar inspection system is known, e.g., from U.S. Pat. No. 5,142,648, with which a large number of illumination units and cameras is installed along a production line for passenger vehicles, the signals of which are evaluated in an arithmetic logic unit. This system has the problem, however, that the entire three-dimensional object cannot be examined with equal inspection quality in all areas to be inspected on the surface, because the picture-taking conditions are too different for the various areas.